UNHCR
Guterres on
World Bank
& Jordan,
Lebanon, Moving
Back Censors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
24 -- When UN
High
Commissioner
for Refugees
Antonio
Guterres
addressed the
UN Security
Council on
April 24, most
media
attention was
on the speaker
after him:
Angelina
Jolie.
But Guterres
in his speech
picked up
where he left
on of February
26, speaking
about the
World Bank not
aiding Lebanon
and Jordan due
to classifying
them as middle
income
countries. He
said, "The
World Bank is
now exploring
various
possibilities
of making
large-scale
concessional
financing
available to
Lebanon and
Jordan, combining
bilateral
grants with
its own usual
loans."
But
when might
this actually
happen? Inner
City Press has
been asking.
(Guterres
was to appear
later on April
24 at en event
co-sponsored
by Sweden's
Mission to the
UN. After
finding that
their outreach
through the
so-called UN
Correspondents
Association
resulted in
reaching only
those who pay
money to UNCA,
now the UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
the flier was
appropriate
distributed
more widely,
which the Free UN Coalition for Access recommends
to all
missions and
wanna-be
speakers.)
Back
on February 26
Guterres said,
“It is absurd
that Lebanon
has no access
to World Bank
grants because
it is
considered a
middle-income
country."
On
April 9 at IPI
(which also
had an event
scheduled on April
24, on how to
select the
next Secretary
General),
Inner City
Press asked
Amin Awad,
Director of
the Middle
East and North
Africa Bureau
of the UNHCR,
what the
agency and
rest of the UN
have been
doing to bring
about a change
at the World
Bank on this.
Amin Awad
replied to
Inner City
Press that “on
the World
Bank, I think
there is a
conviction at
the Bank, at
the high
level, the
management”
for a “special
provision or
at least a
suspension of
the rule” that
middle income
countries are
not eligible.
“We are
pushing in
that
direction,” he
said, and
“there is
traction among
donors.” He
said the
realities in
Jordan and
Lebanon are
different now,
on income,
growth rate,
the support
they need.
“The World
Bank is a
leading
institution
and has to be
involved with
Jordan and
Lebanon” and
other
countries.
But will they?
We'll stay on
this. Watch
this site.
Back on
February 26
Inner City
Press, when
Guterres came
to the
Security
Council
stakeout after
the meeting,
asked him
about this
addition, and
if he -- and
UN Deputy
Emergency
Relief
Coordinator
Kyung-wha Kang
beside him --
would be
pushing for a
change at the
World Bank,
which is
official a
part of the UN
“family.”
Guterres
replied that
development
assistance
should taken
into account
this new
world, where
Lebanon and
Jordan but
also Chad,
Niger and
Cameroon with
respect to
Nigeria, and
Ethiopia and
Kenya with
respect to
Somalia, are
the “first
line of
defense for
global
collective
security.” Video here.
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